Jambo! Habari gani?

Hello my dear friends, family and loved ones! The above title means "Hello, how are you?" in Swahili, the national language of Kenya. I am eager to get back into blogging for my upcoming trip to Bungoma, Kenya to complete my Public Health Field Experience and would love if you all join me in my adventure. The field experience is the chance for Masters students to take the knowledge and skills they have acquired over the past year in the classroom and apply them to a real public health situation. The goal is to bring public health to life and help students strengthen their philosophy and understanding of public health and begin to identify as public health professionals. 

For my field experience, I will be working with the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS)- Bungoma Branch to coordinate a 6 week sexual health and HIV/AIDS peer education group. I will be educating Kenyan volunteers (around the ages of 15-21) on sexual health and HIV transmission and then they will, ideally, deliver these messages to high school aged students at the local schools. The goal of the group is to change local behavior and improve communication between students and parents and healthcare providers in order to reduce HIV/AIDS infection rates for adolescents in the area. Bungoma, a city in Western Kenya, has seen the highest prevalence of HIV infections recently. I fully believe in this program because it has a high potential to be sustainable. As much as I would love to travel to these schools and speak with youth about sexual health and prevention strategies, it is not a feasible option. Sexual health is still viewed as taboo in Kenya and therefore, needs consistent, and patient, integration within the communities and schools. Therefore, by training Kenyan volunteers on sexual health issues and prevention measures, they can present it to others who live there and hopefully they will talk about it among their friends; thus creating a trickle down effect. I will also be coordinating logistics between the schools and KRCS Bungoma Branch such as consent forms for the students to participate in sexual health education programs and consent for the KRCS to deliver messages at the schools. Because many schools in Bungoma do not have known addresses, it will be difficult, yet important, to identify them for the KRCS.

A little about the KRCS: The Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) is a humanitarian relief organization created in 1965 through an Act of Parliament, Cap 256 of the Laws of Kenya. As a voluntary organization, the Society operates through a network of eight Regions and 64 Branches spread throughout the country. The Society is a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the largest humanitarian relief Movement represented in 189 countries world- wide.

Its mission is to be the leading humanitarian organization in Kenya that is self-sustaining, delivering excellent quality service of preventing and alleviating human suffering to the most vulnerable in the community.

Kenya Red Cross Society - Bungoma Branch

Located in Bungoma City in the Western District of Kenya, the KRCS - Bungoma Branch serves vulnerable and marginalized populations in the area through both acute and long- term assistance.

The KRCS - Bungoma Branch participates in the same programmatic initiatives (excluding the Dadaab Refugee Camp) as the other KRCS branches across the country. Those include:

·      Disaster management

·      Health and social services

·      Water and sanitation

·      Organizational development

·      Other support services

In addition to the work of the paid-staff at the KRCS, there is a volunteer component to the organization. Primarily, the KRCS - Bungoma Branch organizes a robust youth volunteer program that empowers local adolescents to participate in service activities around Bungoma City. The KRCS also hosts various educational courses to their youth group about various topics including public health.

I have so much more I want to write about, including Kenya's history and why I am interested in this country and its people. That is coming up during my 8 hour layover at the Toronto, Canada airport. For now, I should go pack!